UNECE/FAO activities in the area of Forests and Climate Change

UNECE/FAO activities in the area of Forests and Climate Change UNECE/FAO decided to develop its climate change activities according to 12 main lines, on the basis of a gap analysis that comprises:

An overview of UNECE/FAO’s current work in the area of forests and climate change, which includes: providing data on forest resources, products and policies; organising forums and workshops on issues related to bioenergy, wood supply and mobilisation, green building, etc.; and communicating these topics to a broad public;

12 lines of activities

The following 12 lines of activities were approved by the Bureaux of the UNECE Timber Committee and FAO European Forestry Commission in April 2009, and will be presented to the UNECE Timber Committee at its 67th session in October 2009. UNECE/FAO activities on forests and climate change:

1. Maintain relevant databases on forest resources, markets, and policies and institutions. Increase consistency among them and ensure that they are useful for climate change analysis. Better “market” them to climate change experts and ensure easier access to this information on the website.

2. Continue to monitor climate change policy and its relation with the forest sector in the Forest Products Annual Market Review, and introduce a regular chapter on the carbon markets if technically and economically possible.

3. Design the next Forest Sector Outlook Study to address major issues connected with climate change, alongside other issues. This requires improving the present forest resource models to take account of climate change projections and forecasts, and linked issues such as bioenergy.

4. Continue to promote understanding of the main climate change issues for the forest sector by making it easier to find relevant outputs on the website, through a specific explanation/links section on climate change.

6. Continue the activities on bioenergy, wood mobilisation and potential wood supply, all of which contribute to the climate change discussion.

7. If funds are available, organise capacity building workshops on climate change issues in Eastern Europe and central Asia to help governments develop climate change policies that are consistent with sustainable forest management. Such policies should ensure that the forest sector makes the optimum contribution to mitigating climate change, whether by carbon sequestration, carbon storage in forests or products, or substitution.

8. Challenge all ECE/FAO teams to address aspects of climate change in their areas of competence, with synergies when possible.

9. Ensure that adaptation is addressed by forest sector policies (but do not address adaptation issues at the technical level, with the exception of some elements of forest monitoring). This includes raising awareness of forest sector policymakers of the possible choices at forums, and pointing to the relevant information and experts.

10. Communicate UNECE/FAO climate change analysis to partners and other sectors, so that they are used appropriately. This includes tapping in a more targeted way into the networks of other sectors, in particular the environmental community and the networks of other UNECE Divisions.